The present invention relates to a device for a patch panel, and in particular to a device for at least one of scanning connection ports of the patch panel and activating indicators of the patch panel.
Patch panels are commonly employed in computing networks for interfacing with patch cables, the patch cables carrying data from one location to another. In some applications, for example in large data-centres, the numbers of patch cables and corresponding patch panels can become very large and difficult to maintain and manage.
A known system for managing a large network of patch cable connections comprises a patch panel with scanning electronics, the scanning electronics for determining which of the patch panel's sockets have patch cables plugged into them. The scanning electronics may have a communication interface for feeding the information on the connections back to a computer. For an example, refer to U.S. Pat. No. 7,160,143.
A further known system for managing a large network of patch cable connections comprises a patch panel with guidance electronics for guiding a technician working on the patch panel connections. The guidance electronics may comprise lamps that light up above particular patch panel sockets to indicate which sockets various patch cables are to be inserted/removed. The control information for the guidance electronics may be received via a communication interface to a computer. Such guidance functions are implemented in, for example, the PatchView IIM products available from RiT Technologies Ltd.
One of the drawbacks of such scanning electronics and guidance electronics is that it typically reduces the expected lifetime of the patch panel, since it can be more vulnerable to failure than the remaining electrical/physical elements of the patch panel.
One method of addressing this problem is to integrate the scanning and guidance electronics into a central analyser unit, and to route at least one conductor from each patch panel socket back to the central analyser unit. However, this results in a large number of conductors to be routed from the patch panels and plugged into the analyser unit, and if one part of the scanning or guidance electronics in the analyser fails, then typically the whole analyser needs to be replaced.
The replacement of the patch panels and the analyser unit can also result in significant difficulties in ensuring that the patch cables that are removed from the old patch panel/analyser are all placed into the correct sockets of the replacement patch panel/analyser.